Fast 40: Practicing the Ancient Spiritual Discipline of Lentಮಾದರಿ

We live in a cultural moment where psychologists—who have become the priests of secularism—are telling people one of two things: you can never change yourself, or you can always change yourself. But both dogmas fail, and for the same reason: they are centered on the Flesh. Christianity, as I have said, sees in the sinful Self the ultimate enemy of a man's own soul. It preaches not self-indulgence but self-denunciation, not self-help but self-renunciation.

But some Christians get frustrated by the battle. I've heard some students tell me, "But Gabe, you know we can never REALLY win the victory. After all, Paul said in Romans 7 that he did the things he didn't want to do!"—which is true. The problem, however, is that Romans 7 is not a conclusion but a question. At the end of the chapter, Paul asks, "Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (v. 24), and in the next chapter, he answers the question. Romans 8 is the answer to Romans 7. Romans 7 is self-centered; Romans 8 is Spirit-centered. Romans 7 is psychological; Romans 8 is pneumatological. Romans 7 is failure; Romans 8 is triumph!

What we need is Romans 8: a baptism of the Holy Spirit that empowers us to fight against the Flesh. What we need is the same Spirit that inflamed the heart of Christ to endure the Cross. The heart of the Gospel may be a Cross, but the heart of the Cross is a Holy Fire.